Only 19% of Australian employees feel they work in a high fairness environment
"Creating a balanced and shared employee experience will be the most important initiative for HR executives in 2022."
This is according to Neal Woolrich, Director HR Advisory at Gartner Inc., as employers face the challenge of maintaining fairness in workplaces hit by the pandemic. Woolrich said that in order to achieve a balanced employee experience, organisations need to "go beyond policies and develop philosophies."
But what exactly do workplaces with high fairness environments look like? Gartner said it’s demonstrated when employees believe their manager and organisation treat them fairly. A lot of employers seem to miss this, however, as only 19% of Australian employees said they work in such high fairness environment. The survey revealed that only 37% of Australian organisations practice "true transparency," with most companies disseminating information unevenly among staff. According to the report, this encourages back-channel conversations among staff and generate distrust among employees. It also revealed that only 21% of qualified employees feel that they are considered for a next opportunity in their organisation, while only 19% feel that they feel acknowledged from their contributions.
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From these findings, Woolrich is urging employers to develop strategies around these four areas to improve employees' perception on fairness:
"Organisations that employ strategies to address these four factors can create a significant shift in the number of employees who feel like they have a fair experience at work – from fewer than in one in five employees to more than four in five employees," said Woolrich.
To develop these four factors, the Gartner official suggested the implementation of the following actions: